I was recently thinking about a question last time I cleaned my rifle. If I shoot my rifle without paying attention to how hot the barrel gets then will the copper fouling on the rifling increase with the increased temperature of the barrel? Any helpis be appreciated.

I'm not so sure the barrel temp is a cause for copper fouling. IMO I think it is more of the roughness of the rifling which causes the copper to collect in the recesses much like wood dust collects in sandpaper. I have one Browning that is terrible for copper fouling. And this is even after going through a break in procedure. The best thing I've found that isn't harsh is Hoppe's Elite metal fouling remover.

I think Bronko... is right. All barrels collect copper fouling regardless of barrel temperature, some worse than others. I use Butch's Bore Shine to remover it. It does a nice job.

I have been reading this post and was kind of hoping someome would chime in here. I do not know the answer. All I know is my experience. All I have found is that I get less fouling from a target barrel than I do a light barrel when I shoot them at the bench and they have a chance to get a little hot. I do not allow them to heat up too much before I set the rifle aside and let it cool off.

IMO what causes the fouling is friction. And I also believe friction causes the barrel to heat up. So it would stand to reason that the hotter the barrel is the more friction there is. So fouling would increase in the hotter barrel if you did not set it aside.

However I believe fouling is more a component of barrel quality. I watch 1,000 yard bench rest shooter's shoot a 10 shot string at 1,000 yards in 5 minutes. Their barrel's are not burning up after the 10 shots. But then they also shoot a heavier barrel than most.

I have noticed that my higher qualit barrel's(Krieger and Douglas)do not foul nearly as bad as my lower quality barrels(Savage). My savage 300 WSM rifle shoots great, but the barrel fouls quickly, and heavily. I always have to shoot two fouler shots after I clean it. Most riflesonly take one. Tom.

It's really no big deal to get a barrel too hot, just watch this video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eNAohtjG14c&NR=1

Most of your fouling is from a rough throat. You could have the nicest smoothest looking bore in the world and it will foul badly with copper if the throat was mangled in the reaming process.

I agree with Briman. What your paying for when you buy a Krieger or such is the qualtiy control in the machining process. The rougher the throat and the rifling the more the barrel will foul. I have been fortunate on lower end factory rifles like a 700 ADL and savages that have not fouled very bad at all. That being said I also do not shoot cheap bullets, I handload Noslers, Hornady's and Sierra's. I don't load bulk Winchester or Remington bullets anymore, they always seemed to leave the bore dirtier than the others.